Europeanization of the United States

To be a conservative, to me, means to be a person who appreciates the well-proven advances made in past times as key to understanding how new proposals in law and social development should be judged and accepted or rejected.  Underlying this is a belief in individual freedom, rule of law, moral rules set by natural or religious tradition, and conservative fiscal principles.

To be liberal, in my observation, seems to be to accept a system of legal and social development that often relies on fads of the moment, a drive toward "equality" of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity, and a simplistic reliance on the rule of government, often to the deferrence of liberties, plus an disregard for basic economics.

I have found a summary of much of my viewpoint and the impact on the U.S in an interview with author Samuel Gregg about his new book, ”Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future.”  See the interview here: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/27/california-illinois-and-new-york-have-have-more-or-less-become-european-argues-author/

He calls the effect "Europeanization" as a new term to describe a modern synthesis of socialistic, liberal, and large, omni-powered central government social designs.  The European Union is the example of how these ideas are producing stagnating economies populated by citizens who have, in general, lost much of their will toward individualistic effort to better themselves, instead exchanging liberties for the safety net bequeathed by a state that strives "mother" them.